Another icon in danger: Ack-a-me sold a again

Know how you can tell a real Philadelphia native. Ask them to pronouce the name of your local supermarket.

Everybody from Philly knows Acme is a three-syllable word.

At least it was to my dad.

As in Ack-a-me.

Maybe not for much longer. The troubled local grocery icon has been sold again. This time its parent company, Supervalu Inc., is selling off Malvern-based Acme and four other grocery chains.

Acme, along with Albertsons, Jewel-Osco, Shaw’s and Star Market stores are going to AB Acquisition LLC, an investor group. Yeah, it doesn’t sound like it has much to do with groceries to me, either.

Acme operates 112 stores across the region, with 10,000 employees. Here in Delaware County, Acme has about a dozen stores.

The chain has been struggling for years amid increased competition, in particular from huge stors such as Walmart and Target, who have jumped into the grocery wars, as well as upscale oulets such as Wegmans.

No word yet on the fate of the stores as well as workers.

Let’s hope Ac-a-me stays around forever. We already lost A&P. We don’t need to drop another local icon.

About Me

Phil Heron has been editor of the Delaware County Daily Times and Delcotimes.com since 1999 and worked in the newspaper racket since 1978. He uses this site to turn back the curtain a bit on the great mystery involved in creating a newspaper and website every day, and his other general thoughts on life and the news.